Votive plaque inscribed with Sabaean dedication

Votive plaque inscribed with Sabaean dedication

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This votive plaque with a raised border around its edges has a Sabaean dedicatory inscription. While the worship of aniconic images was widespread among South Arabian cultures, the precise significance of the inscription as a cult object is uncertain. The practice of dedicating the inscription itself, as opposed to placing the inscription on an object intended for dedication, is a departure from the contemporary customs of greater Mesopotamia and Iran.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Votive plaque inscribed with Sabaean dedicationVotive plaque inscribed with Sabaean dedicationVotive plaque inscribed with Sabaean dedicationVotive plaque inscribed with Sabaean dedicationVotive plaque inscribed with Sabaean dedication

The Met's Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art cares for approximately 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the emergence of Islam in the seventh century A.D. Objects in the collection were created by people in the area that today comprises Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Yemen, and Central Asia. From the art of some of the world's first cities to that of great empires, the department's holdings illustrate the beauty and craftsmanship as well as the profound interconnections, cultural and religious diversity, and lasting legacies that characterize the ancient art of this vast region.